"ILLEGAL PEOPLE":
Haitians And Dominico-Haitians In The Dominican Republic

IV. DEPORTATIONS AND MASS EXPULSIONS

Over the past decade, the Dominican Republic has deported hundreds of thousands of Haitians to Haiti, as well as an unknown number of Dominicans of Haitian descent.43 On several occasions, most recently in November 1999, the Dominican authorities have conducted mass expulsions of Haitians and Dominico-Haitians, rounding up thousands of people in a period of weeks or months and forcibly expelling them from the country. Snatched off the street, dragged from their homes, or picked up from their workplaces, "Haitian-looking" people are rarely given a reasonable opportunity to challenge their expulsion during these wholesale sweeps. The arbitrary nature of such actions, which myriad international human rights bodies have condemned, is glaringly obvious.

But although they differ in scale and, to some extent, in their mechanics, the deportations that take place in the Dominican Republic on a daily basis are in many ways similar to these reoccurring waves of mass expulsions. Suspected undocumented Haitians are singled out for deportation based on the color of their skin. Once in migration or military custody, they are frequently granted little or no opportunity to prove their legal status. Low-level army or migration officials make the decision to deport them, and that decision is final.